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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The IUPUI volleyball team kicked off the Golden Dome Invitational Friday in search of a win to snap its three-match losing streak, but the Jaguars were unable to do so falling to both Washington State and Western Michigan.

The losses dipped the Jags overall record to 1-5 on the season, while both Washington State and Western Michigan both improved to 3-1.

After struggling offensively against Washington State, IUPUI was more efficient against Western Michigan but defensively the Jags had trouble stopping both of its opponents as both the Cougars and the Broncos hit over .260 collectively.

"Against Washington State, we once again kept pace with a very powerful team up until the last five or six points. We just need to keep our composure at the end of matches," head coach Steve Payne said. "I was pleased that we held our hitting errors down against Western Michigan and played a great second set to come back from a deficit. During that set we really played great defense and came together – we just need to do that for an entire match."

In the opener against the Cougars, the Jags trailed 20-19 in the opening set and 19-18 in the second set only to lose those sets 25-21 and 25-19, respectively. The same held true for the Jags in sets three and four against Western Michigan with the Jags trailing 23-22 and 19-18 in the final two sets, but they just couldn't get over the hump.

Kelly Wachtel led the way with 21 combined kills on the day, with 13 of those coming against the Broncos. While Wachtel totaled the most kills on the day, Meredith Farkas put down a career-high tying 14 kills against Western Michigan and added 13 digs for her second kill-dig double-double in the last three matches.

While Wachtel, Farkas and Kaitlyn Hickey led the way offensively, the Jags received key contributions from freshmen Kori Waelbroeck and Ashley Hacker. Waelbroeck posted seven kills, two digs and tied for the team lead with three total blocks against Western Michigan, while Hacker dished out 23 assists and added five digs versus WMU.

Despite the two losses, Payne was pleased with the effort his team displayed on the opening day of the Golden Dome Invitational.

"We showed some signs of really coming together today and we played with some urgency. We need to duplicate that tomorrow against Notre Dame."

IUPUI concludes the Golden Dome Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 6, when they take on the Fighting Irish at 3:30 p.m. Live stats and live streaming of the match will be available on IUPUIJags.com.